{"id":13441,"date":"2020-03-25T00:51:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T06:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=13441"},"modified":"2020-03-25T00:51:26","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T06:51:26","slug":"arts-organizations-performers-deal-with-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/25\/arts-organizations-performers-deal-with-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts Organizations, Performers Deal With Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY DANA DUGAN<\/em><\/p>\n

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Members of Company of Fools meet online to discuss plans for the future. Clockwise from upper right: Patrick Szczotka, Scott Palmer, Chris Henderson, Chris Carwithen, Kris Olenick and K.O. Ogilvie. Photo credit: Company of Fools<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Throughout the country, due to the COVID-19 crisis, countless communities and businesses are at risk due to cancelations, shutdowns, and the need for physical distancing. Included in these numbers are arts organizations, and performers who make their living in front of audiences, appearing at events, venues and schools. From musicians to lecturers, to actors, performers, and even freelance writers, cancelations are now the norm. Because working artists are contract workers, they have little recourse when gigs are canceled.<\/p>\n

Actors, who are members of an appropriate union, such as the Screen Actors Guild or Actors\u2019 Equity Association, may be able to receive benefits during this time if they qualify. Locally, that is seldom an option.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scott Palmer, Company of Fools\u2019 producing artistic director, and the COF team were prepping for its annual Fools\u2019 Day celebration at the Liberty Theatre. This is the day COF traditionally announces its upcoming season. Of course, that event is canceled. Instead, at 5:30 p.m.,Wednesday, April 1, COF will host an online Virtual Fools\u2019 Day, reachable through Facebook or the Sun Valley Museum of Art (SVMoA) website. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cAs a promoter for music in the Valley, I\u2019m constantly checking on the pandemic,\u201d said Luke Henry, the producer of Summer\u2019s End \u2013 The Draper Rendezvous. \u201cI\u2019m praying I don\u2019t have to postpone Summer\u2019s End.\u201d Photo credit: Dana DuGan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The online event will be hosted by Palmer, SVMoA Artistic Director Kristin Poole, SVMoA Performing Arts Director Kristine Bretall, and SVMoA Executive Director Christine Davis Jeffers. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe upcoming season included a repertoire of three shows with people coming from all over the country, dedicated children\u2019s performances, and the holiday show,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had to make significant changes.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Palmer said it has been a \u201chectic couple of weeks trying to make these decisions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those ways COF is managing this is to reach out to actors who live in the Valley. Before the COVID-19 crisis blew up, there were a total of 14 actors for this summer\u2019s repertoire. Now, that number is down to four. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re encouraging all of our artists to look at all the union opportunities like Equity for relief,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cBut we\u2019re lucky because so many actors who live here also have other jobs.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Also, SVMoA will offer a variety of online interactive and entertaining activities, including \u201cStay Home. Art at Home\u201d with daily themes, past exhibition videos, and live music from the Hemingway House sessions, co-produced by The Community Library.<\/span><\/p>\n

COF will offer more video content and a podcast with Palmer interviewing actors, artists and directors discussing how the current crisis is affecting people across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLow on virus, high on hope,\u201d Palmer said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, the Sun Valley Music Festival reached out to its community by urging people to contact their representatives to include the support for the arts in the federal relief package.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Sun Valley Music Festival continues to plan to present its full summer season, including concerts and education programs, the coronavirus has already had a devastating economic impact on America\u2019s nonprofit arts sector with financial losses to date estimated at $3.2 billion,\u201d according to an email. <\/span><\/p>\n

R.L. Rowsey is the artistic director of the Sun Valley Music Festival School of Music, a Core Company Artist with Company of Fools, and the music director for Light on the Mountains Spiritual Center. All classes are on hiatus, and the Caritas Chorale concert in April is postponed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know these are challenging times for everyone, and we\u2019re all looking to see what we can do to support one another,\u201d Rowsey said. \u201cBecause that\u2019s what we do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Singer-songwriter Michaela French, who plays several live shows a week, said she\u2019s mulling over \u201clivestreaming from my desert hideaway.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, a vital aspect of playing music for folks is sharing the moment and physical space and comradery with other humans,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a player, I really do enjoy the sound of friendly chatter, a sense of joy and celebration of the little extra and the occasional interaction with my fellow restaurant attendees.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For festival producers, the situation is murkier, as it involves many performers, with events in the nebulous future.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBandcamp is a great outlet to support musicians on a more direct level,\u201d said James Fowler, Sawtooth Valley Gathering director, who still plans to host the event in July. \u201cIn a bittersweet way, this is a great time for singer-songwriters who want to make an extra buck via a social media livestream. These are happening regularly. Viewers can donate directly to the artist by way of Venmo or PayPal.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Sun Valley Records had both a Songwriting Festival and an associated concert planned for early May. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything has been postponed or outright canceled,\u201d co-founder Don Zimmer said. \u201cIf you are a tech-savvy artist with some sort of following, there is a lot of Internet livestreaming. This connects you to an audience, with a \u2018tip jar\u2019 function embedded in the system, so you can get paid from your viewers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Boise, Opera Idaho\u2019s General Director Mark Junkert said several events have been postponed or canceled, including the production of Jake Heggie\u2019s \u201cDead Man Walking,\u201d which is rescheduled for the 2021-22 season. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working with all the artists to find workable dates for next season,\u201d Junkert said. \u201cIf we can, we will offer an advance on their contracts. There\u2019s the legal part, and there\u2019s the ethical part of a contract. We hope we can pay some percentage of the postponed contracts now. Our major upcoming fundraiser gala was canceled, and will be online on Friday, April 3.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to an article in Money magazine, \u201cfreelance workers\u2014which can include everyone from journalists and photographers to teachers and truckers\u2014contribute $1 trillion to the economy, according to a recent study by Upwork and the Freelancers Union.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY DANA DUGAN Throughout the country, due to the COVID-19 crisis, countless communities and businesses are at risk due to cancelations, shutdowns, and the need for physical distancing. Included in these numbers are arts organizations, and performers who make their living in front of audiences, appearing at events, venues and schools. From musicians to lecturers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}